{"id":696842,"date":"2026-01-15T04:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/696842\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T04:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:03:11","slug":"sydneys-sweeny-scraps-his-way-to-australian-open-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/696842\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney’s Sweeny scraps his way to Australian Open start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dane Sweeny has fought his way through qualifying to earn a main-draw berth at the Australian Open. (Zain Mohammed\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Self-described scrapper Dane Sweeny has battled his way into the Australian Open main draw with a gritty straight-sets win over Italy’s Stefano Travaglia.<\/p>\n

Sydney’s Sweeny secured the spot on Thursday, winning his third straight match in qualifying at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

Cheered on by a court packed with vocal home fans, the 24-year-old won 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-3) to qualify for the Open for just the second time, following his 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

Sweeny made a first-round exit at what was his only previous appearance at a major, and is currently ranked No.182 in the world.<\/p>\n

After Thursday’s win, an emotional Sweeny sat court-side with his head in his hands, soaking up his achievement.<\/p>\n

“I’m in disbelief,” he said in his on-court interview.<\/p>\n

“Really, I was ranked 700 not so long ago, and I persevered, I was doubting the whole time.<\/p>\n

“I just feel so incredibly grateful to be able to be in this position, and I’m proud of myself for digging in there when it was really tough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I had a few opportunities to really break the (first) set wide open and I was a bit passive in the big moments.<\/p>\n

“In the second set that was my goal, just to play with conviction in the big moments, win or lose, and I think I did that.<\/p>\n

“So I can’t really believe it yet, but I’m super excited.”<\/p>\n

\"Dane
\n Dane Sweeny has walked through an Open door after qualifying for the year’s first grand slam event. (Zain Mohammed\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The diminutive Sydneysider, who only weighs 63kg and stands 170cm, \u00a0threw himself into every point in a stunning acrobatic display that often ended with him splayed across the court.<\/p>\n

It appeared he had injured his wrist in the second set while diving for a shot, but he shook it off and played on.<\/p>\n

“I don’t even have a decision when I do that, it’s just intuitive, it just happens,” Sweeny said.<\/p>\n

“I think it just comes from being small and learning to scrap (from) a young age.”<\/p>\n

Sweeny is one of four Australians – the others being Jason Kubler, Madison Inglis and Storm Hunter – still alive in qualifying, with the winners advancing to the main draw, which gets under way on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dane Sweeny has fought his way through qualifying to earn a main-draw berth at the Australian Open. (Zain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[1500,4044,5686,5681,12,5683,5682,5684,79,1068,5685,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-696842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-daily-news","10":"tag-global-news","11":"tag-inkl","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-news-app","14":"tag-news-headlines","15":"tag-news-today","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tennis","18":"tag-today-news","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115897132985805966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}